The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1887-01-09
THE MISSING LINK.

A Surgical Operation Transforms Her Into a
Reasonably Pretty Girl.
Special to tho Indianapolis Journal
NEW YORK, Jan. S.-Elmira Howard was. for
several years, an exhibit in the dime museums
throughout the country Her career as a human
curiosity began when she was thirteen years old,
and while it lasted she was known in show life
as the Missing Link, because her face was
badly maformed that she scarcely looked hu
man. Protuberances from her forehead gave
a demoniac aspect, and she heightened the inn
preston by letting her hair 60 tousled, by wear
ing primitive clothes and by maintaining glib
berish widness of utterance When she became
adult she shrank from publicity and retired
from the museums living afterward with her
parents at No. 2ls Seventh avenue. Lately she
determined to have surgical operation per-
formed. in the hope that she might be relieved
of her singularity. She went to several hospitals
in this city, but the surgeons generally disfavored
her idea, 80 long as the proposed experiment
did not seem essential to her health. Then
she consulted DIR. G. w. Gay, president of the
Suffolk County Medical Society. who had been
familiar with two stations of the sort As re.
lated by Secretary j. Mxer, of that association,
the curious operations mentioned were performed
by DIR. d. W. Cheever, of Brooklyn. The first was
a young man who had bony Jumps under the
eyes, and their steady growth slowly de-
stroying his vision. The difficulty in the opera.
tion determined consisted in preserving the
| nose from Disagreement Curved incisions wera
made over the eXcrescences, and, the overayine
parts having been pushed back, the bone form
ing the Jumps chiseled off. Then the skin
and flesh were fastened in place, and the face,
on recovery, was greatly improved in appear
Rnce The second was less happy in its re,
| suits. The patient was girl. and the growth
| was on her forehead whence it removed:
| but there prove2 to be also jutting into the
| brain by similar formation, and she subse-
| quently died.
| The Missing Link insisted stoutlv on being
| cured or killed. She longed to look lks4 normal
/ young women, and the more so as she M a
! sweetheart who had offered marriage. She had
/ made her consent conditional on her acquire
| ment OF reasonable comeness, for she did not
| believe that his love would endure long with a
! hideous wife The surgeon found that the fossa
consisted of a substance as hard as bone, and
| not distinguishabe from the skull out from
which it grew. The skin of her forehead was
stripped up from the eyebrows, the cut being
made along a line where the eyebrows would
| hide the ensuing scar. except right above the
| bridge of the nose The bopy horns" being
| barred by laying the flap of skin over the top OF
| her head, mallet and chisel, defty yet vigor-
! ously welded, Clipped away the undesired sub
| stance. Caro- and skill were required, for moth
| ing marked the junction Of the skull, and it was
/ requisite to cut off only just enough to consti-
| tuto a smooth, safe surface. The job took over
| two hours, and during that time the girl was
| kept wholly unconscious by chlornform. DIR.
| Cheever was assisted by DIR. Charles ID. Homans,
of the Brooklyn City Hospital, and number OF
! students watched the work, which was finished
| by the careful replacement of the skin, neat
/ sewing up of the wound and an antiseptic dress
! ing. Miss Howard is utterly ruined curios-
| ity, but has become decidedly pretty girl.